Army Corps of Engineers tour former OVMC building for possible COVID-19 care center

WHEELING, W.Va. (WTRF) – The quest to get the Ohio Valley Medical Center poised and ready to become a regional overflow COVID19 care center is moving forward.

The US Army Corps of Engineers brought in a team of nine people on Monday to tour the shuttered hospital’s West Building, along with Mayor Glenn Elliott.

The numbers that we hear nationwide are concerning. Especially, when you look at our population being a little bit older than the national average. We’re not trying to reopen this as a primary care center. It’s only as a backup option in the worst case scenario. We hope, of course, that this is never needed. But I think as a backup option, it makes a lot of sense to be thinking this way.

Mayor Glenn Elliott, City of Wheeling

The team comes in and does a thorough questioning with the engineers and building owners to get a good grasp of square footage, possibility of number of beds that could be facilitated. And then they take a tour and really get down to the bones to determine whether the building will meet those requirements.

Mark Thompson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Mark Thompson said the team will take their findings back to headquarters and make a decision sooner rather than later.

Mayor Elliott says he didn’t see anything in the tour that would turn them against the idea.